Almost Good Times at the School
by Skipp Ryan
Summary: just some random short chapters about the flock when they were at the school before AE Fang Max and Iggy are six, I don't know where I'm going with it, but I think they are cute.
1. Bad dream

**Just a random drabble, I may add more but I have to come up with them first.**

**Enjoy it,**

**Third Person**

He reached for Max's shoulder and shook it, "Max." He whispered.

She rolled over to stare at him bleary eyed, "What?" She hissed. Her face softened immediately when she realized it was one of her only friends in the School. It was her best friend; Fang. When she saw his face hers changed to mirror his. "What's wrong?" She asked urgently. Fang looked worried, maybe even scared. She had never seen him scared before.

His wings twitched. He looked down embarrassed, "I-I had a nightmare" He said, it was barely a whisper and she almost didn't catch it.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, I'm okay now." He whispered.

She sat up, carefully avoiding the low ceiling of the medium sized crate that was way too small for two kids. "What?"

"Nothing I feel better now." He said quietly.

It was odd, Max knew that he didn't usually open up to anyone, he retreated within himself and hid no one could hurt him that way. "Why did you wake me up?" She asked confused.

Fang shrugged his too long dark hair falling into his dark eyes, "I wanted to try something new."

Max rolled her eyes and curled back up on her side to try to go back to sleep. When she realized it wasn't going to happen she sat back up to find Fang sitting back against the crate with his knees drawn up in front of him his eyes had a faraway look to them. He was deep in thought she decided. She scooted back against the crate too and mimicked his position hugging her knees and resting her chin on top of them.

Fang came out of his daze and turned to her, "What are you doing?"

"What are you doing?" Was her reply.

Fang's black wings twitched behind him. They both had wings, but neither of them had ever extended them, you got hurt if you did. "Do you think we can fly?" He whispered.

"I don't know, I had a dream about it once." Max offered.

Fang shook his head, "It would be cool, if we could. I like my wings."

Max smiled, "I like mine too."

"I wouldn't want them to take them away." He whispered. They twitched again

"Me neither." She whispered back. "Is that what your dream was about?"

Fang's wings twitched again, "Night Max." He said before rolling over and setting in against the crate.

Max took that as a yes. She reached out and put her hand against one of his wings and whispered, "They're still there."

Fang smiled but she didn't see. Max always had his back, or in this case, his wing.

**Well that's it, reviews are appreciated, thanks for reading.**

**Skipp Out**


	2. Wings Like Me

**Wings Like Me**

Fang sat up and watched the small baby sleep. Even at the age of six he knew babies couldn't just be left alone. He didn't know what to do though, the white coats had just put it in his crate and left. Did it have wings like him? Was it real? What did babies eat? Was it a trap? Another test? Questions spun in his head as he watched it. Where was Max when he needed her?

He crawled closer to it, inch by inch, waiting for it to explode in his face, then it moved! He didn't jump. He didn't move, he just stared at it. It was real. Did it have wings like him? He reached out and poked it, watching it move as he did so. Finally satisfied that it wasn't a trick he reached out and picked it up, holding it carefully like he had seen Max do with the dark skinned baby. They called her Nudge. He didn't hold Nudge, Max had for a little while, and then the white coats had taken the baby away.

This baby was stinky, "Gazzy," He thought to himself. He would show no emotional attachment to it, he knew they would take it away. Was it a boy or a girl? Did it have wings like him? The baby looked up at him and smiled. Fang smiled back, he didn't smile very often, but he couldn't help it, he had never held a baby before and it was smiling at him. Only Max ever smiled at him, Iggy didn't smile anymore because he couldn't see, and Jeb only smiled at Max.

He inched to the back of his crate with the baby in his arms. When he got there he propped the baby against his shoulder and pulled the blanket down to look for wings, it did have wings like him. Only they were white, and his were jet black.

A white coat brought Max back from testing and threw her into the crate beside him. Fang waited for the white coat to leave before turning to Max, "Look, It has wings like me!" He whispered in excitement.

**This is what happens when I wake up at two in the morning and can't sleep.**

**I hope you like it,**

**Thanks for reading**


	3. Why So Silent

**This one is sadder,**

**I don't think it's depressing but you might**

**The name doesn't really fit it, but it was all I could come up with**

**Why So Silent?**

Fang sat up, why was it always him who got the brutal treatment? It wasn't that they physically hurt him, though they did and they did it a lot but they did that to all of the flock, but they always attacked him emotionally. Even Jeb, who was cool, nicer to the rest of the flock than he was to him. They always watched him with glares, and called him by his number and not by his name like they did with the rest of the flock. He was just F1. They called the rest of the flock by their name with their number attached. They weren't nice to any of the flock, but they hated him. He was the one they put through the most physically exhausting tests, the most eraser fights, the most emotionally painful tests.

Max got the mentally challenging tests, the mazes, and the find the object behind the door tests, Fang got loaded down with heavy equipment and chased by an eraser and shocked if he dropped anything. It sucked. He hated this place.

He looked over at Iggy, It wasn't fair that he couldn't see. It wasn't fair that he still had to run through mazes even though he was blind. He tuned to see Nudge, mumbling to herself and rocking back and forth. She should have friends, more than just the flock, friends who could talk as much as she did, a friend like Max. he had recently decided that every one needed a Max, a best friend who knew what you were thinking and how to make you feel better when no one else could. He turned to his other side to see her watching him through the bars. He cocked his head at her.

She shrugged, "You were gone again." She told him.

What was that supposed mean? He hadn't gone anywhere, he could only wish for things like that. He cocked his head again.

"It was like you weren't really there anymore, you…what's that word the one about going back? The R one."

"Retreated, Max, you're thinking of retreated." Iggy answered sullenly. He had been like that since he lost his sight, he had been a different kid three weeks ago.

"Right, it was like you retreated into yourself or something."

Fang didn't get it but he realized he wasn't going to so he gave up.

"How come you don't talk anymore? You use to talk all the time."

Fang shrugged. He didn't want to be hurt, he didn't like the insults that were thrown at him. Everything he said they would use against him.

***

Jeb Batchelder watched from the observation room, he sighed. Max was right he wasn't talking any more. They were pushing the boy to hard. He wished it wasn't necessary, he wished he could say that they were all wrong and that these kids could have normal lives, but he knew they couldn't. He knew they had a destiny. The school-though brutal, abusive and hard-was training them for what was to come. Max would be the leader, Iggy was suppose to be the second in command but Jeb knew he never could be-even before the accidentally took his eyesight-, Iggy didn't have the hard core it took to be the second in command, Second in command was the hardest position there was, to be second in command was to be the backup, and the one who would take over if Max failed, Fang had what it took, and he could be there for Max like no one else could.

Even now, when Itex had broken him and forced him into a shell of silence he could provide encouragement and comfort to Max. It was one of the most remarkable things about them, more so even than the wings. That with his, now few, snide comments he could give Max hope, and that she could give it back to him. Jeb had to bring Fang back, to get his confidence back, confidence was something that all of the flock needed. There was a second reason why Jeb had known that Fang would be second in command, he knew something the other white coats didn't. That was that Fang was smart, he was logical, he would probably be smarter than Max if given the chance. Max was rash and wild, Fang was a thinker and he was calm. They balanced each other out.

Jeb would find a way to give him his confidence back. He had to. The world depended on Max, and from what Jeb could tell, Max would grow to depend on Fang as much as he secretly depended on her.

**I hope you liked it,**

**Let me know what you think,**

**Suggestions are welcome**


	4. Wing Man

**This is a companion to Why so Silent.**

**I hope you like it. It is also kind of depressing.**

**Wing Man**

Max watched as Jeb let Fang out of his crate and led him down the hall. She was worried about him, he wasn't talking anymore and he kept hiding deep inside himself. He was her best friend and he had stopped talking, even to her most of the time. "I wonder what they did to him that made him stop talking." Max said more to herself than anyone else.

"They didn't do anything to him Max; Fang is just a mystery that no one can solve. He decided to stop talking and no one else but him did it. He chose to stop talking because he just does things like that." Iggy snapped. He was still mad about not being able to see, and he was scared that they would terminate him because of it.

Max sat back in her crate, and shook her head. Iggy was wrong. Fang wasn't a mystery he wasn't even all that complicated; he just had walls around his mind he hid his emotions as much as he could. Max had learned most of the tells that he couldn't hide; like that he clenched his jaw when he was mad, and his eyes widened when he was surprised. His wings twitched ever so slightly when he was nervous and he got a faraway look in his eyes when he was really thinking hard about something. They looked empty when he retreated into himself, almost lifeless.

He was hurt emotionally, and she knew it. She only wished she knew how to help him. She wanted to escape this place, Jeb had told her all about the world outside, and she wanted it. She wanted it bad, but she wouldn't have left the flock behind for anything, not even that. She wanted them to go with her even more-if that was possible. She wanted Fang to come, she wanted the whole flock to come, but he was different. He was her best friend. He didn't get pouty like Iggy, or talk too much like Nudge. He would always back her up, even if there was no chance of winning. Everyone needed a Fang, someone to boost you up when you fall.

Max sighed. He was her best friend, her brother and her wing man. She giggled to herself at the phrase. Wing Man. That described him best, always at her wing, always watching her back, always with her and never against her. Wing Man.

**Well hope you like it.**

**I didn't like it as much, but maybe you feel differently**

**I think the next one will be happier. But no promises.**

**Let me know what you think.**

**Thank you to all my reviewers!**

**All of these are linked; they just jump around a lot,**

**I just thought I'd let you know.**

**Skipp Out**


	5. He Bit Me First

**7, almost 8 years old now for the oldest three! Yay for age jumps!**

**Here we go, tell me what you thought :-)**

**Bite**

An angry white coat came in cursing and dragging an unconscious Fang behind him. He threw him into Max's new large crate, They had decided, that since they could fit two in a large, they could get two and fit the whole flock in the two of them.

"Fang!" Max whispered. She was kneeling over him waiting for him to come to. Being knocked out was a normal thing for them so she wasn't worried, but she did really needed to talk to him. "Fang!"

Fang finally moved, his head twitched and he yawned.

"Fang!"

He ignored her and rolled onto his side to sleep.

Max grabbed his hair and pulled him up to a sitting position in front of her. "FANG!"

Fang glared and grabbed her hair. "Don't pull my hair." He growled.

Max smiled and let go of his hair. "I saw that kid that they put in your crate last year." She whispered.

Fang's eyes widened, "The gazzy kid?"

Max nodded. "He's a boy."

"Cool."

"Jeb said that he will be in with us in six months." She continued.

Fang nodded and Max noticed a cut that was running the length of his jaw.

"What happened to your face?" She demanded how could she not have noticed it before?

Fang gave her an unexpected smile, one of the first ones in a year, "I bit a white coat."

"Why?" Max asked laughing.  
"He bit me first." Fang said seriously.

"No way,"

Fang nodded, "Yes he did, he was an intern and the others told him that if he bit me I would straighten up." He held up to show a red imprint of teeth for proof.

Max laughed.

Iggy sat up in his crate with Nudge beside him. "A white coat bit you! He actually believed them? Are you serious?"

"Yep."

Nudge began to ramble about the coolness of it and Fang's smile quickly disappeared. "H*** yes I'm serious." He said.

Max smacked him upside the head. "Don't use that word."

Fang's eyes were alight with a smile that he wouldn't let escape, Smiles were only for extremely special times for him. Only Max could see the logic in that. When Fang smiled it was special, and you knew something was really good for him. He had to be gushing with happiness to smile, or proud, he sometimes smiled when he was proud. Because he didn't smile very often, they were more appreciated when he did.

He watched her smile at him, not really because she was happy about him getting himself hurt, but because he was happy. That was just how they worked; if one was happy, so was the other; If one was hurt, so was the other, if one was sad, so was the other.

Fang turned to tell Nudge to shut up, and the world went on, even in dog crates, the flock could find happiness.


	6. Flirt

Flirt

Fang watched the new intern walk down the hallway, she was really pretty. He was excited about the new intern, not because she was pretty, but because, interns were usually nicer than the other white coats.

"What does she look like?" Iggy asked eagerly.

"She's really pretty. She has brown curly hair and green eyes. She wears he coat funny, you can see her shirt under it. It's a blue blouse with ruffles down the buttons. She is really young for a white coat. I like her." Fang whispered. Max was glaring at her already.

She glared at all white coats. "She's a white coat. She's evil, what more do you need to know?"

Iggy grinned. "She's an intern though, so she will be nicer. I like her too."

Fang smirked as Max wasted a glare of death on him.

She stopped in front of Iggy's crate. "Are you I1?" she asked him politely.

Iggy smiled in her direction, "Yes, but you can call me Iggy."

"Why don't you come with me Iggy." She said politely holding her hand out in the crate; she hadn't realized that he was blind yet. Iggy had been getting better at being blind over the past year since he had lost his eyesight; he had even started smiling again. He grabbed her hand with freaky precision and let her lead him out of the crate.

"What's your name?" He asked.

She smiled at him. "Monica." She answered.

"I like your shirt Monica." He said.

"Well thank you what nice manors you have."

Iggy turned back and raised his eyebrows in Fang's direction smiling from ear to ear.

Max sat back in their crate, "Flirt."

**I just thought Iggy needed one,**

**And this came to me.**


	7. The Comming of Gas

**The Coming of Gas**

A white coat walked in and grabbed Fang out of the crate he and Max were sharing. Two others came in with a new crate, a medium crate. They set it down beside Max's crate and threw him into it. Fang turned to glare but was surprised too see a bundle in the white coats out stretched hands. This crate was too small for him to be able to move forward or backwards, so he reached out and took the bundle.

"Curiosity killed the cat." Max hissed, earning her a smack upside the head.

"I'm not a cat I'm a hybid." Fang shot back. Hearing him a smack upside the head as well. Seeing stars he snatched the bundle to him and looked down at it. "It's gazzy."

The white coat slammed the flap closed and left.

"The word is Hybrid you idiot." Iggy said once he was gone.

Fang rolled his dark eyes and ignored him. "Hey Max, what do I do with him?" He asked. She had the most experience with things like this.

"You have to hold him until he can sit up on his own.

Fang was lost in the tiny baby's blue eyes, "He needs a name." Fang declared.

"Look who's talking again." Iggy muttered.

Fang just shrugged and watched the baby in his arms. Why did they give it to him? Max was better at this stuff. Then a stink erupted from the baby. It was the most putrid thing he had ever smelled. Even Iggy and Nudge could smell it and they were across the room.

"Whoa, Gas…Man." Iggy coughed holding his nose.

"That's it, Gasman." Fang decided. "Gazzy for short."

"Why do you get to pick it?" Max demanded coughing.

"Because he is in my crate." Fang explained.

"Man, you are talkative today, why?" Iggy asked. Nudge continued to sleep despite the smell. The School must have drugged her was what the flock decided.

Fang shrugged staring at the blonde headed baby. "I don't know." He was happy-or at least as happy as one could be when in a tiny cage, it was an odd feeling for him, he wasn't use to it, being almost happy didn't happen in the school.

**Thanks for reading, what did you think?**

**Skipp out**


	8. Not in Love

**Not in Love**

Iggy smiled "Fang and Max are in looovvve!" He said.

Max and Fang's mouths dropped open. "What?"

"Ew,"

"Yeah, ew." Max echoed.

"You can't love your best friend." Fang told Iggy.

"You do!" Iggy shot back.

"No I don't." Fang said calmly. There was no reason to over react about this, Iggy was wrong he was right.

"Why would you even say that?" Max demanded.

"Cause it's true." Iggy sang.

"Right Iggy, you just keep telling yourself that." Fang said sarcastically.

Iggy rolled his eyes, "You love her. You love her." He chanted.

Fang glared. "Watch it Iggy." His voice was deadly quiet.

Iggy froze.

Fang nodded pleased, "That's what I thought."

Max grinned at him.

"How does Iggy know?" Nudge asked.

"He doesn't." Max told her.

"How do you know?"

"I just do." Max told her.

"What about Fang, how does he know?"

Fang sat up a little straighter in his cage, "I know everything." He told her.

"He does not!" Iggy yelled. "He doesn't know that he loves Max!"

"Cause I don't love Max, best friends don't fall in love with each other."

**

Jeb laughed from the observation room, Fang had no idea. How Iggy knew it, Jeb had no idea, but fang would fall in love with Max, he already loved her. They were too well matched not to fall in love. It would be a very long time before either of them figured it out.

**Short sweet and funny.**

**Do you agree?**


	9. On Top of You, I'm Claustrophobic

**On Top of You, I'm Claustrophobic**

Fang sat, crouching in the tiny white room feeling extremely claustrophobic. He hated small places, the dog crates were bad enough but this was horrible. He was having terrible urges to hyperventilate and he couldn't see outside. He was alone and all he could see was white. He couldn't find where the door had been he couldn't see a security camera. He was alone and he was afraid. He hated small places. He hated this room. It was smaller than his cage, and he couldn't see the flock. He pulled his wings out and wrapped them around himself. The dark feathery warmth was comforting to him, he figured that if they were going to shock him for spreading his wings they would have to open the door so it would be worth it.

He ducked his head under his arms and wings so instead of being surrounded by white, he was surrounded by black. He would have rather been running from erasers; then he would be moving, doing something. In here he was just trapped and locked up. He let his mind wonder to what Max had told him about what Jeb had told her about the outside world. She had said it was a place that was big and free and that the ground was softer because it had this green stuff called grass and that the sky was blue and you could spread your wings whenever you wanted there. Fang wanted to go there. He wanted the outside world.

Max did too. That was why she told him about it in the dead of night when the rest of the flock was asleep. They were best friends so they shared everything. Fang had only ever shared most things with her, like his fear. She was the only one to know about how afraid he was. She knew that he was nearly dying stuck in these cages. She didn't know that he was terrified that they would cut his wings off. He had never told her, but she could see past the mask that he hid behind like no one else. They were two things that bothered him, scared him twenty four seven. He knew she had a vague idea about his wing fear from his nightmares. But she did know the extent of it. He was claustrophobic as well. Seriously claustrophobic. He barely kept control of himself in those cages.

He was safe inside his mind but he came out for the flock, he watched the flock to make sure they were safe. Max had seen him lose it quite a few times, when they were very young, she most likely didn't remember it. They had been only three or four. He had lost his mind with fear and the need to get out. He had clawed and gnawed at the cage bars trying to get free. He had done it only once when Iggy was around, but multiple times when she was the only one to witness it. He couldn't help it. He would get flashes of need to be free. Max had seen a lot of them, it had been Max who had dubbed Fang Fang, because he had actually managed to gnaw through a cage bar once. It had earned him four extra tests and extremely hard and reinforced bars for his cages, his were always thicker than the others.

He was stronger now, he didn't try to gnaw through things anymore, he simply retreated into his mind and thought about other things. Like he was doing now. He wondered where Max was, If she was being tested or chased by an eraser, or if she was safe in her crate. She was stronger than he was, he decided. She could handle anything. He was always right and she was indestructible, they made a good team.

Max thought he was the strongest, because he didn't voice his fears. She had to lean on him when she got freaked, but he simply retreated. That didn't make him stronger, she overcame her fears, he didn't. Maybe he was wrong, maybe he was the stronger one, but he didn't see it that way.

Someone grabbed his shoulder. Fang cried out in spite of himself and pulled his wings tight against his back. He was rewarded for crying out with a hard smack to the side of his head. A second hand grabbed his other shoulder and heaved him upwards. So that was where the door had been. The hands set him down in a new, larger white room and a white coat squatted down in front of him Fang clamped his mouth shut and worked on recovering himself.

"Who are you?" The white coat asked.

Fang sat silently, still in too much shock to say anything.

"Do you know how to speak?" The white coat asked slowly, enunciating each word with over exaggerated length and perfection.

Fang nodded glaring at the man. He wanted to go back to the flock.

"Then speak." The white coat commanded. He was new, but he wasn't an intern so he wasn't nice. "What is your name? What do the other experiments call you?"

"Fang." Fang growled as his confidence came back, he wasn't so trapped anymore he could breathe again.

"Mhm, I see, why do they call you Fang?" The white coat asked as he made marks on his clipboard.

"I bite people." Fang told him darkly.

The white coat laughed, "Why do they really call you Fang F1?"

Like he was going to tell a white coat, only Max knew that. He leaped up and bit the white coat's hand.

An morphed out eraser grabbed him and pulled him away from the now screaming white coat digging his claws into Fang's sides. Fang unclenched his jaw with some major effort when he tasted blood in his mouth.

"What on earth?" The white coat screeched angrily. Fang noticed that the white coat's voice was much higher than it had been moments ago? He wondered why that was.

"This one is called Fang by his fellow experiments for a reason sir, but really it's the kicking that you have to watch out for." The eraser growled as he continued to dig his claws into Fang's sides drawing blood. Fang grunted in pain. So he had started kicking again, Fang realized. He did that quite often without even realizing it.

"As much as I would love to find where this one's breaking point is and watch him lose all that self control that he appears to have, those aren't my orders, let him go." The eraser dropped him to the floor and raked a claw up his back. Fang clenched his teeth and didn't whimper as the erasers claws shredded his shirt and pulled feathers off his wings.

The white coat sighed and waved him away, "He is useless, take him away now, I can't work with a brainless experiment like it."

The eraser shrugged and dragged Fang back to the flock. He threw Fang into Max's crate, shut the door and left.

"Fang! You are on top of me!" Max yelled as he landed literally on top of her.

Fang rolled his eyes grunting in pain. "No, I'm on top of you? Really I hadn't noticed." He said darkly as he worked to untangle himself from her.

"And you are losing feathers! And your shirt is ripped and you're bleeding!" Max continued.

Fang rolled his eyes, "Gosh, you sound like Nudge."

Max's face turned red, "Well, yeah, they gave me a shot this morning and I haven't been able to shut up since." She explained.

"Oh," Fang couldn't find a way to get out of the tangle that they had managed to get themselves into so he stopped trying.

"What did they do?" Max asked as she took a turn at trying to get free.

"White room," Fang said.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I really hate white rooms. They are scary and they are so small. Are your wings okay?" Max rambled.

Fang sighed, "Stop moving you are just kicking me. I assume so, I haven't checked yet."

"Well get off of me and check them, you have to take good care of your wings Jeb said it was important." Max told him.

Fang sighed and pushed himself up so his back was against the top of the cage. "I can't, this cage isn't big enough for both of us and I can't move anymore than I already have without crushing you." Max made way to move but Fang stopped her, "If you kick me again I will kill you Max."

Max sighed and dropped her foot. "Spread your wings and I will check them."

Fang shook his head doggedly. "Not worth it, I'm sure they are fine."

Max sighed. "Why did they cut your wings?"

Fang shrugged, "I bit a white coat."

"again?" Max cried. "Why did you bite him this time?"

Fang smirked, "To prove a point."

**Review,**

**Ideas are really appriciated, as is con crit**

**Skipp out**


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